Thursday, December 31, 2015

2 Samuel 21:1-9 Then there was a famine in
the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of
the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody
house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the
Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the
children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children
of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal
to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the
Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the
atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver
nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any
man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised
against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the
coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we
will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did
choose. And the king said, I will give them.

But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the
son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between
David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of
Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and
Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she
brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: And he
delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in
the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seven together, and were
put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning
of barley harvest.

Not long ago I received a rather self-righteous email from a
character who objected that I had "ignored" this allegedly clear example
of human sacrifice in the Bible. In this brief exposition, we'll
explain why this is not an example of ritual human sacrifice, but
rather, a standard judicial execution, with nuances associated with
Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) legal codes.

To begin, it should be noted that the Gibeonites were in a corner
in terms of seeking justice on their own for the actions of Saul's
house against them. They were unable to protect themselves and could not
engage in a "blood feud" to avenge their losses.

For this reason, they rather pled with David for justice, and it
was provided for them in the form of members of Saul's household – with a
little impetus from God for David to provide that justice. The exact
nature of the punishment is a little difficult to discern; commentators
have suggested everything from a ritual dismemberment to the members of
Saul's house being thrown off a cliff. It is agreed, however, that after
what was done was done, the corpses were exposed to the elements.

It is this last bit that informs us that a judicial execution is
what took place. In the ANE, exposure of a corpse was part of the usual
punishment for covenant treaty violations -- which is exactly what Saul's house did when they broke the divinely sanctioned treaty with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9).

In light of this, let us now consider the objections offered in aforementioned email.

It is clear that the members of Saul's house were provided to placate God.

In light of the judicial data above, that is not at all "clear".
Rather, the narrative is clear that these were judicial executions
performed to settle accounts for Saul's violation of the treaty with the
Gibeonites.

The sacrifice was made during the barley harvest. That's when many ancient people offer human sacrifices.

Harvests were also typical time markers in an era before
published calendars were available. It was also a time when a community
commonly gathered together, and all could be present to witness a
judicial execution.

The passage says that God was entreated for the land after the sacrifice was complete. That sounds like a human sacrifice.

The error here is the assumption that God is only entreated at
times of human sacrifice. In reality, violation of a covenant in which
YHWH was the chief witness and suzerain would naturally result in
punishments in line with the Deuteronomic covenant curses. In this, YHWH
is no different than any other ancient suzerain/patron, who would also
withhold favor from those who violated covenant terms, and would
properly demand that the situation be resolved -- and just as naturally,
once the price of justice has been paid, that is exactly when those
being punished would entreat the suzerain for relief.

In conclusion: I gathered these arguments from a survey of
commentator views on this passage. As it happens, there was one
commentator who argued that this judicial execution was some form of
sacrifice to a "sun god." That, however, is a vastly minority position,
and is just not supported by the textual or contextual evidence.

Friday, December 11, 2015

In keeping with our efforts
to stay up to date with materials on the Christ myth, I'm presenting
here an analysis of a response to my article on Tacitus by an Islamic
apologist, who created the response for his blog. As is my usual policy,
I will not link to or name this blog, considering the poor quality of
the arguments -- and because, although the critique was written in 2012,
the Islamic apologist (who I will hereafter call “Sam”) still does not
refer to me by my correct name (5 years after the fact).

Hereafter, my original article material is in bold; Sam's replies are in italics, and my replies to Sam are in normal print.
Here you have a document 1100 years after the event is alleged to have happened. And it is to be taken at face value?

Sam apparently reads very little professional historical
literature, and did not consider my arguments as a whole before he wrote
this reactionary sentence. For one thing, I don't take the reference at
"face value", which is why I provided numerous arguments and data for
it after this paragraph. Relatedly, professional historians, and
Taciteans, do the same and the 1100 year gap doesn't disturb them in the
least.

Imagine a Muslim who brings a body of hadith (collections and
sayings of the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) put into writing) and no document
of hadith predates 11 centuries after Muhammed (pbuh) would you be
skeptical?

Although the victimization role may play well to Sam's readers,
this means nothing unless he actually finds that someone -- and I in
particular -- do the same. I have not, in the least, because I have
never studied Islam in depth. That said, Sam would have the same burden
as Taciteans do, to explain why the 1100 year gap is of relatively no
moment.

Sam sermonizes a bit about this strawman he has erected, then finally gets back to some substance:

[Holding] says that it is unlikely that this is Christian
forgery. Why? because here we wish to use the principal of embarrassment
but since we are coming up with likely scenarios, how about this one.
What about introducing a principle of lessor embarrassment to save one
from a greater embarrassment?

What about it? Unfortunately, Sam does not explain what "greater
embarrassment" we might have been spared if not for this allegedly
"lesser" one. He merely leaves the option open for his readers to
fantasize about in the hope that they will simply imagine that one
actually even exists. As it is, given that crucifixion was the most
shameful form of execution in the time of Tacitus, there is no "greater"
embarrassment that could be contrived.

“Indeed, the Tacitus polemic against Christianity is so strong
that it was one of two things Tacitus was condemned for in the
sixteenth century - the other being that he wrote in bad Latin -
[Dor.Tac, 149], and it is even said that Spinoza liked Tacitus because
of his anti-Jewish and anti-Christian bias. [Momig.CFou, 126]

My comment: This does not help matters at all. Of what
relevance is sixteenth century critique of Tacitus a man who lived circa
50 C.E ?

The relevance -- which Sam, being unschooled in such matters,
would hardly know -- is that the 16th century was the height of the
Renaissance, when scholars had the greatest leisure and resources to
discuss such questions in depth for the first time. It is also relevant
because it is during this era that many argue that the alleged forgery
of the passage about Jesus was performed (until, that is, earlier
manuscripts were found). I'll add, as well, that the time marker in no
way implies that Tacitus' anti-Christian attitude would not have been
clear to earlier readers in any century.

No church father, however, would have willingly quoted such a
negative reference to Jesus and the Christians; moreover, indications
are that Tacitus wrote for a very limited audience of his peers. The
Annals may not have gotten into the Church's hands at an early date.

Maybe so but than again one does wonder why no church father
would have made use of such a widely known quote in polemic against
those who asserted that Jesus was a myth. Example: Justin, in his
Dialogue with Trypho, represents the Jew Trypho as saying, "ye follow an
empty rumour and make a Christ for yourselves." "If he was born and
lived somewhere he is entirely unknown." So this question is not readily
answered.

Yes, as a matter of fact, it is. Sam is making the standard error
in his use of Trypho, who is not saying Jesus was a myth; rather,
Trypho is saying Christians wrongly assigned the title of "Christ" to
someone. Sam apparently failed to search my materials completely.

So: The idea that this passage is an interpolation is no more
credible than the idea held in the 19th century that Tacitus' entire
works are fifteenth-century forgeries.

There is a logical flaw in the above assertion. A person may
embellish in some respects and yet be right in others no need to cast
aspersions upon everything.

Here it is hard to see what Sam's point is, as his commentary is
not even coherent, and it is not even clear how he thinks it relates to
my summary statement.

The Tacitus literature is full of praise for the accuracy,
care, critical capability, and trustworthiness of the work of Tacitus,
and it is singularly unfortunate that many writers in this subject area
have failed to appreciate this!

I myself am fond of the words accuracy, care, critical
capability, and trustworthiness, but I did note one word missing:
infallibility.

Sam is doing no more than arbitrarily raising the bar of evidence
to stratospheric heights for his own convenience. The fact is that
Taciteans do not require Tacitus to be "infallible." Given Tacitus'
reliability, it is the burden of doubters like Sam to explain why Annals
15.44 must be treated as an exception to Tacitus' widely known and
recognized record of reliability.

However, this does not mean that Tacitus accepted Pliny's
information on Jesus, or on any topic, uncritically. Annals 15.53
indicates that Tacitus did collect some information from Pliny - and
that he disputed it, and even considered it wholly absurd. Simply
because Pliny was Tacitus' friend and confidant does not mean that he
believed everything that Pliny told him.

So if Pliny had information that Tacitus finds “wholly absurd” or incredible is Tacitus free from the same kind of critique?

I do not know where Sam gets such an idea, but it seems that this
is more pep talk than scholarly argumentation. At the same time, there
is nothing "absurd" or "incredible" about Annals 15.44; a man with
followers, who ends up crucified, and who manifests no absurdities. So,
it is hard to know why Sam thinks he can apply such a critique.

Sam quotes several of my comments from Taciteans about Tacitus
being reliable, and then my summary of where Tacitus may have gotten his
information about Jesus. He then says:

I don't know about you people but my eternal salvation and truth does not rely upon 'could have' 'may have' and 'suggestions'.

Nor does mine. The qualified language is only about the nature of
Tacitus' sources for Annals 15.44, and the same sort of qualified
language would adhere to the majority of the content in the Annals.
Unlike Sam, however, professional historians do not run around like
headless chickens thinking that this is a problem. Nor do they think,
because of it, that the facts of history are open to question. Sam is
simply engaging in rootless hyperbole of unjustified uncertainty, under
the outlandish implied premise that only 100% certainty, beyond all
possible doubt, is acceptable.

After more sermonizing on the same lines, we return to:

Should this issue of bias be cause for concern? Not really,
for two reasons. First, in spite of his bias, Tacitus is still
sufficiently trustworthy. Second, there is no indication that Tacitus'
bias had any effect on the Jesus reference. Indeed, if it would have had
any influence, it would be the opposite of the sort required in order
to devalue the reference! Let's look at some further relevant data:

I am amazed how easily brushed aside is the issue of Tacitus
and his alleged bias. Amazing! And besides the fact we don't know where
he got his sources from. Possibly a bias source!

Sam isn't paying attention here. The issue here is not about any
biased sources used by Tacitus, but Tacitus' own bias, and what role it
may have played on his report of Jesus. Sam also ignores the most
critical point, which is the burden he, as a critic, has to explain;
namely, what specific effect Tacitus' bias would have had on
compromising Annals 15.44.

In other words, even when Tacitus was expressing bias, his
inner scruples were such that he still would not report an inaccuracy.Wow so much embellishment of Tacitus and his grand moral character. Again an amazing assumption.

Amazing enough indeed, that it is an evaluation I took directly
from professional Tacitean scholars, something Sam doesn't mention.
After this, Sam sermonizes some more about needing 100% certainty (he
even uses the figure of 100%!); however, if that is what he wants, we
then need to ask how it is that he knows Muhammed was not a space alien!

Some points I made about how Tacitus' bias would have, if anything, led him to denigrate Jesus, are quoted. Then it is said:

Since we are throwing out speculation of what Tacitus did and
did not do, here is another speculation because of his bias he reported
what ever he heard without further scrutiny. He did not report that
there was confusion as to what happened to Jesus. He did not report that
no one knew what actually happened.

Here again it is hard to know Sam’s point, especially since Sam's
English is rather deficient. I gather he is saying that Tacitus' bias
kept him from reporting these things, but the bias Tacitus held against
Christians would have, if anything, led him to say the very things Sam
lists. Yet, these are not found in Tacitus.

And if we are going to use the 'principle of embarrassment'
argument than Christians should follow it through logically. That
Tacitus relied upon information that was hostile to Christianity namely
that Jesus died thus proving him to be a false messiah according to the
Jews and a rebel according to the Romans.

Again, Sam seems to have allowed mastery of English to evade him,
so it is hard to see the point. This is indeed the view we suppose
Tacitus held, and it is one he would have held even had Jesus risen from
the dead.

Yes it does. And that is precisely why a cultured Roman like
Tacitus would dismiss, out of hand, reports of Jesus having risen from
the dead. That said, none of this has any bearing at all on Annals
15.44, which only reports that which Tacitus, as a cultured Roman, would
find perfectly acceptable and just.

[Holding] than gives us a quote from an Atheist that he
feels gives help to his cause. The quote from an Atheist actually back
fires. To what extent allegedly did Tacitus employ his malicious wit
concerning the unnamed source of Jesus alleged death on the cross?

This is in reference to what I quoted from Carrier, regarding the
procurator/prefect issue, and once again, the point is lost in Sam's
lack of compositional competence. There is no connection between
Tacitus' wit and his sources, and no chain of logic, to speak of, that
can make one in the way Sam is relating.

“This is a far better point than we may realize: Being that
Tacitus' readers were - like he had been - members of the Senate and
holders of political office [Dor.Tac, 64], we must suppose that this
"error" escaped not only Tacitus' attention, but their’s as well. We may
as well suggest that a United States Senate historian's error, of the
same rank, would pass without comment.”

At this point Sam seems to be losing his cool, where all he can
do is to repeat his prior points (e.g., 1100 year gap) and obsessively
focus on my use of the word "suppose" as though it reflected some
uncertainty in my views. In reality, it reflects a reductio ad absurdum
that someone in his position is forced to explain. Clearly, Sam lacks
the capabilities to do so.

I am quoted extensively regarding Tacitus' reliability, and the
burden of critics to prove that Annals 15.44 is an exception. Sam says:

But isn't it interested that when Tacitus implies that he is
mentioning a rumor he doesn't do so in connection to his bias against
Jews? So if he doesn't mention rumors in connection with Jews and
[Holding] admits his bias towards them than why would he mention rumors
in connection with Christians? Think about it!

Perhaps I will think about it, when we can call in a linguist who
can identify it and tell us what it is. As it is, it doesn't even come
close to representing (and therefore answering) anything I actually
said, much less does Sam explain how he can devalue Annals 15.44 with
this discovery.

It has been my observation that there seems to be very little in
the way of quality apologetics from Muslims. This is a clear example of
why.

Friday, December 4, 2015

In
recent years a new Thanksgiving tradition has developed:people complaining about it.Critics allege that our third president, Thomas Jefferson, regarded
Thanksgiving as “The most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard.”As of this writing, a Google search yields
581 results of this statement, coupled with “Jefferson” and “Thanksgiving.”

Did
Jefferson really say those words?What
documentation is cited by the skeptics?

Virtually,
none.

Thanks
to the digital revolution, a comprehensive repository of published materials
from the eighteenth and nineteenth century is available online.Newsbank offers America’s Historical
Newspapers, America’s Historical Imprints. Gale provides Eighteenth Century Collections
Online, The Making of the Modern World, Sabin Americana, Nineteen Century
Collections Online, and Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers.Digitized newspapers are also available
through ProQuest and Access Newspaper Archive.Do these sources document the quote?No.Neither is there any citation
at Thomas Jefferson’s libraries at Monticello.

Why
do critics not cite the source of their claim?Perhaps because the quote is bogus.

J.
P. Holding pursued the matter online and could find no usage of the quote
earlier than 2006—nearly two centuries after Jefferson’s death.

Why
would Jefferson disparage Thanksgiving?The
concept was commonplace in early American history as documented in the
Thanksgiving Proclamations stored here.

It
may shock critics to learn that when Jefferson was governor of Virginia, he
issued a Thanksgiving proclamation, on November 11, 1779:

WHEREAS the Honourable the General
Congress, impressed with a grateful sense of the goodness of Almighty God, in
blessing the greater part of this extensive continent with plentiful harvests,
crowning our arms with repeated successes, conducting us hitherto safely
through the perils with which we have been encompassed and manifesting in
multiplied instances his divine care of these infant states, hath thought
proper by their act of the 20th day of October last, to recommend to the
several states that Thursday the 9th of December next be appointed a day of
publick and solemn thanksgiving and prayer, which act is in these words, to
wit.

"Whereas it becomes us humbly
to approach the throne of Almighty God, with gratitude and praise, for the
wonders which his goodness has wrought in conducting our forefathers to this
western world; for his protection to them and to their posterity, amidst
difficulties and dangers; for raising us their children from deep distress, to
be numbered among the nations of the earth; and for arming the hands of just
and mighty Princes in our deliverance; and especially for that he hath been
pleased to grant us the enjoyment of health and so to order the revolving
seasons, that the earth hath produced her increase in abundance, blessing the
labours of the husbandman, and spreading plenty through the land; that he hath
prospered our arms and those of our ally, been a shield to our troops in the
hour of danger, pointed their swords to victory, and led them in triumph over
the bulwarks of the foe; that he hath gone with those who went out into the
wilderness against the savage tribes; that he hath stayed the hand of the
spoiler, and turned back his meditated destruction; that he hath prospered our
commerce, and given success to those who sought the enemy on the face of the
deep; and above all, that he hath diffused the glorious light of the gospel,
whereby, through the merits of our gracious Redeemer, we may become the heirs
of his eternal glory. Therefore,

Resolved, that it be recommended
to the several states to appoint THURSDAY the 9th of December next, to be a day
of publick and solemn THANKSGIVING to Almighty God, for his mercies, and of
PRAYER, for the continuance of his favour and protection to these United
States; to beseech him that he would be graciously pleased to influence our
publick Councils, and bless them with wisdom from on high, with unanimity,
firmness and success; that he would go forth with our hosts and crown our arms
with victory; that he would grant to his church, the plentiful effusions of
divine grace, and pour out his holy spirit on all Ministers of the gospel; that
he would bless and prosper the means of education, and spread the light of
christian knowledge through the remotest corners of the earth; that he would
smile upon the labours of his people, and cause the earth to bring forth her
fruits in abundance, that we may with gratitude and gladness enjoy them; that
he would take into his holy protection, our illustrious ally, give him victory
over his enemies, and render him finally great, as the father of his people,
and the protector of the rights of mankind; that he would graciously be pleased
to turn the hearts of our enemies, and to dispence the blessings of peace to
contending nations.

That he would in mercy look down
upon us, pardon all our sins, and receive us into his favour; and finally, that
he would establish the independance of these United States upon the basis of
religion and virtue, and support and protect them in the enjoyment of peace,
liberty and safety."

I do therefore by authority from
the General Assembly issue this my proclamation, hereby appointing Thursday the
9th day of December next, a day of publick and solemn thanksgiving and prayer
to Almighty God, earnestly recommending to all the good people of this
commonwealth, to set apart the said day for those purposes, and to the several
Ministers of religion to meet their respective societies thereon, to assist
them in their prayers, edify them with their discourses, and generally to
perform the sacred duties of their function, proper for the occasion. Given
under my hand and the seal of the commonwealth, at Williamsburg, this 11th day
of November, in the year of our Lord, 1779, and in the fourth of the
commonwealth.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Thanksgiving
was observed sporadically in the early 19th century on the federal level
while being observed regularly on a state level.

In
Volume Three of his diary, President Rutherford B. Hayes pointed out, "I have the Thanksgiving Proclamations
of twenty-seven States--all recognizing religion, nearly all the religion of
the Bible, and several the Divinity of Christ. More are coming, doubtless. Our
Legislature for many years has passed a joint resolution annually authorizing a
thanksgiving and frequently in terms which recognized the religion of the
Bible. The last Legislature omitted to do so by a mere accident this year,
but in [the] Sixty-fifth volume Ohio Laws, page 306, passed one last year. If
you wish to borrow my bundle of Thanksgiving Proclamations I will send them to
you. All state institutions have religious exercises, some of them chaplains
paid under state laws. The meetings of the two houses of the General Assembly
are always opened with prayer in accordance, sometimes, with resolutions
(passed unanimously usually), and sometimes by common consent. The
inaugurations of governors are prefaced by religious exercises."From the Diary and Letters
of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, p. 72.

President
Chester Arthur stated in his
Thanksgiving Proclamation,“It has
long been the pious custom of our people, with the closing of the year, to look
back upon the blessings brought to them in the changing course of the seasons
and to return solemn thanks to the all-giving source from whom they flow.”

Friday, November 27, 2015

I've taken it upon myself, as editor and primary
author of Shattering the Christ Myth, to keep abreast of any new works
on the subject of Jesus' existence, and produce any needed replies. The
volume Is This Not the Carpenter? (INC) edited by Thomas Thompson
and Thomas Verenna, represents a mixed-interest entry into the subject
matter, with contributors ranging from the moderate (Lester Grabbe, Jim
West) to the fringe lunatic (Robert Price, James Crossley, Thompson
himself). A reader generously donated the volume (which costs nearly
$100!) so well devote some entries to a somewhat selective examination.
As it turns out, many of the chapters do not side with the Christ-myth
thesis at all.

The introduction is credited to Thompson and Verenna, but based
on the content is clearly mostly Thompson at work (whether directly, or
indirectly), so I'll save some time by just referring to Thompson as
author. I'd have to say the intro typifies a certain naivete found in
fringe scholarship, one in which absurd ideas are concocted to explain
textual phenomena because far more prosaic and contextualized
interpretations are either ignored, or more likely, are off the fringe
writers' academic radar screen. Some time ago I reviewed Thompson's Messiah Myth
(MM -- link below) and the introduction to INC repeats the same
fallacious patterns, so that if you read my review, you have a
refutation of the introduction in principle. But you might want them in
terms of specifics, so let's have a look at some of those.
The focus is on the story of Jesus healing in his hometown (Mark
6:1-6 and variants). As with MM, Thompson excels in esoteric readings
that quite frankly seem to have been pulled out of thin air. Thompson's
ignorance of more prosaic explanations emerges from the get-go; he is
on from the start about an alleged "leifmotif of hands" in Mark's
version (which is excessive in and of itself, as mark mentions "hands"
only twice in the account), which he goes on to connect to "the figure
of the Greek god Hephaestus, who was the god of craftsmen, who himself
had forged the magnificent equipment of the gods...Does the question
about the carpenter identify Jesus as Jewish Hephaestus?"
Let's try for something more contextual and
prosaic, shall we? Mark does mention "hands" twice, but it's not because
he's dreaming of Vulcan's forge (we can only be glad Jesus never healed
anyone with a hammer and an anvil). Rather, the emphasis is on the
hands as "zones of interaction," as we have explained elsewhere:

The "hands and feet" bit has to do with one of three
"zones of interaction" recognized by anthropologists. Malina and
Rohrbaugh in their social science commentary on the Synoptics [356] note
that the hands and feet were a "zone of purposeful action" and "of
external behavior or interaction with the environment." It includes the
hands, feet, fingers, and legs. Thus the hands and feet are not
presented as evidence of crucifixion but as evidence of physical ability
to interact.

Of course, this is all a mountain out of an anthill by Thompson
in the first place; if indeed the historical Jesus had been out healing
people, and being a carpenter, the hands are the obvious instruments to
use; he is obviously not going to be sawing wood, hammering nails, or
performing healings with his toes, elbows, or glutes. As we noted in the
review, Thompson needs to learn Albert Lord's Lesson. The one thing he
does get right is that Mark is certainly being ironic by comparing the
deeds done by Jesus' hands. But all that about Hephestus is just plain
silly.

In other aspects, Thompson's presentation is, as in MM,
remarkably high on assertion and remarkably low on real argument. Bias
or trickery is seen under every rock; it is said of John's version, for
example, that John "is so committed to a Christian supersessionist
polemic against Jews that he freely compares the Jews negatively with
Samaritans, Galileans, and foreigners in support of the presentation of
Jesus as 'the savior of the world'. " Well, could it be that John is
committed to that polemic because it happens to represent a a certain
truth? That Jesus really is the savior of the world, offering a new
covenant to succeed the older? Nah, couldn't be. It's so obviously wrong
we don't even need to argue it, right? (And not so incidentally,
Thompson here hints at, but does not explicitly state, the usual error
of turning John into an anti-Semite; if he's under that illusion, he
needs the contextual clue that "Jews" = Judeans, not religious Jews.)

We also have Thompson up to his usual efforts of finding
"thematic elements" repeated from an older story to a newer one, and
using this to hint at ahistoricity; this is again a failure to learn
Lord's Lesson, so we need not take that aspect further. He also embarks
on a rather comparison of Mark's version of the story to that of Matthew
and Luke, and the Lesson applies just as well.
From there, there is a brief discussion of the "Quest for the
Historical Jesus." It is rather ironic for Thompson, as a fringe author,
to speak disparagingly of the "assumption of a historical Jesus" and
"unquestioning acceptance" of the historical Jesus as though it were
some sort of lunacy in itself. His own theory of imagined "motifs,
themes and tropes" (discussed, again, in the review of MM) is suppsoedly
providing the genius element all those other schoalrs are missing; they
are misunderstanding the "implicit functions of our texts." Yes indeed.
Alvin Boyd Kuhn felt the same way, didn't he? And he was no better at
providing evidence for his views, or arguments that were any less
circular than Thompson's.

As noted in the review of MM, Thompson's claims of "mythic and
theological representations" are little better than the same sort of
arguments produced by Acharya S. An unhealthy combination of imagination,
semantic machination (involving crashing two highly different
situations together by using vague, generalizing descriptions), and
selectivity is all that it amounts to, and it is simply an arbitrary
exercise that can be used to dehistoricize Lincoln as easily as Thompson
dehistoricizes Abraham, Moses, or Luke. It can even be used to
dehistoricize one of his own contributors, Robert Price (link below). Is
this not the fringe Bible scholar?

The intro closes with descriptions of chapters to follow, but we'll deal with those on their own terms in further entries.

Chapter 1 is by formerly prominent blogger Jim West, discusses
the phenomenon of "minimalism" in history. There is not much to address
here; West appeals to some of the typical canards common to those who
accuse the Gospels of historical error (including the rather strained
idea that Matthew and Luke put the "Sermon on the Mount" in entirely
different places). West uses this to argue that the Gospel authors were
themselves "minimalists" in reporting history. Here, however, West is
merely imitating the "higher critics" who don't even bother to look for
or evaluate solutions to these alleged problems, and simply opts for the
simplistic idea that such differences are best explained as efforts to
make esoteric "theological points." As with Thompson, such views require
more imagination than consideration.

Chapter 2 by Roland Boer is a historic survey looking back at the
work of David Strauss, Bruno Bauer, and Ludwig Feuerbach. I have read
Strauss alone of these three, and can certainly attest that he would fit
in well with the Thompson crowd: Like them, he owed much more to
imagination for his findings than practical consideration, and was well
versed at inventing problems either out of ignorance or thin air. In any
events, as little more than a "look back" at the history and roles of
these three authors, Boer's chapter contains nothing that concerns me.

Chapter 3 by Lester Grabbe is a brief survey of non-Christian
references to Jesus. It is naturally not as comprehensive as our own
treatment in
Shattering the Christ Myth, but does contain a handful of the
same points, and in general agrees with our own conclusions. Grabbe
apprently believes Jesus exists, so that he represent the reasonable
sector of INC.

Chapter 4 is little more than a historical survey/sermonette by
Niels Lemche, the point of which appears to be that 1) higher criticism
is wonderful; 2) even moderate like Willieam Dever are brainwashed by
their religious upbringing. If Lemche had an argument of any sort
intended to prove his points, he neglected to include it, and so there
is really nothing to address here; and if there were anything to
address, it would be difficult to find it among Lemche's
stream-of-consciousness meanderings.

Chapter 5 by Emmanuel Pfoh begins with the assumptions asserted
by Thompson -- that the Gospels are myths reflected by motifs, not
history ,and come of the "mythic mind" of ancient persons who, after
all, were too primitive to properly relate the difference to us clearly.
Pfoh relates a sort of agnosticism about a historical Jesus (he says
there "might have been a person" by that name). However, the essay
barely gets out of the realm of methodological survey otherwise; overall
it merely assumes, rather than arguing for, the Jesus of the Gospels as
a "mythic figure," and so contains nothing that can be seriously
addressed.

Chapter 6 by Robert Price asks the question of whether a
Christ-myth theory requires that the Pauline epistles be dated early.
Price uses the opportunity to resurrect some of his favored corpses
(like Raglan's theories), Since the date of Paul's epistles is the main
focus for Price, there is little else new here. Price is still
oblivious to the high-context nature of the NT world, and why that is a
reason why we would not, despite Price, think that Paul had "ample
occasion to revisit [materials about Jesus]" -- and here Price even
commits the profound error of drawing an analogy to a "modern preacher"
(from a low context society!). He also notes Dunn's similar argument
(without the knowledge of high context) that Paul's readers were
expected by him to recognize allusions to Jesus' teachings. Rather than
educate himself about high context societies, Price chooses a Monty
Python allusion in mockery ("wink, wink, nudge, nudge") and alleges that
it is merely an argument made to "wriggle out of a tight spot." He
asks, "Given the whole point of appealing to dominical words, who would
neglect to attribute them to explicitly to the name of Jesus?" Who
would? Members of a high context society, that's who.

Other than that, Price offers a survey of views by varied
outdated parties, including mythicists like Drews with no relevant
qualifications, and floats the trial balloon that Marcion was the author
of the Pauline epistles, and that Marcionite thought lies behind the
Gospels. This is accomplished via his usual taffy-pull method of
exegesis, to wit, on John's Gospel, which we will use as a sample.

John is Marcionite because "Moses and his Jews knew nothing of
God." That's a wacky statement that ought to get some significant
support, but here is all Price has to offer:

"Despite all that Deuteronomy says about Moses seeing God face
to face, John denies that any mortal has ever seen the true God." Price
is, as usual, oblivious to ancient idiom and too wedded to his former
fundamentalism; as we have noted in other contexts, "face to face"
simply means "on a personal level." It does not mean Moses "saw" God in
any form other than a hypostatic manifestation.

"Jesus' Father is not the same God the Jews worship." (8:54-5)
Oh? That makes John Marcionite? Then that also makes followers of
Artemis Marcionite. And followers of Zeus. And followers of Booga, Lord
of Road and Streets.

"All who came to the Jews before Jesus, presmably the Old
Testament prophets, were mere despoilers." (10:8) That "presumably" is a
failure. The reference is rather to those prior to Jesus with what
Price would call messianic pretensions -- people who presumed to broker
God's covenant grace -- or other false prophets of the same quality.

"The Father is unknown to the world," (17:25) Er -- yes. The
world had no covenant with the Father. Marcion may have believed this,
but so did the Jews.

"The Torah has nothing to do with grace and truth." (1:17) No, I have no idea how Price gets that out of John 1:17.

"Jesus raised himself from the dead (10:17-18)." Again, what makes this uniquely Marcionite? It isn't.
Chapter 7 by Mogens Muller will not detain us long, as Muller does
not adhere to the Christ-myth. He does, however, take for granted a
number of ridiculous and/or radical ideas (e.g., dating Luke's Gospel
120-30 AD!), and since he only does take these for granted rather than
arguing them, there is little to be engaged that is not conceptually
covered by what we have already noted.

Chapter 8 by Thomas Verenna is one we cannot pass by without
noting that Verenna was formerly known as Rook Hawkins of the Rational
Response squad. I would like to say that Verenna's scholarship has
improved since those days, but while he has become more adept at
assuming a scholarly tone, his ideas have not made the same graduation.
His chapter is one of the longest in INC, and is narrowly focussed on
Paul's "born under the law" description of Jesus in Galatians. Verenna
flies with the premise that Christians created history from texts, and
is apparently unaware that he has this precisely backwards; he only
briefly alludes to the idea, but merely dismisses it quickly as only
being a "suggestion based on a continuing trend of assumptions rather
than one founded on an unbiased investigation of the state of the
evidence." As the link below shows, that is simply false. This is no
mere "assumption" but a reality of the social world of the NT. Verenna's
lack of awareness here is so deep that though aware of the processes
used (e.g., imitatio), he nevertheless repeatedly gets the process
backwards.

However, in the end, although exceptionally verbose (especially
where Verenna reassures himself that his way of reading the texts really
isn't fringe nonsense which departs from the actual use of imitation
procedures), the chapter boils down to Verenna digging out past textual
echoes which he feels render "born under the law" into a non-historical
statement.

Especially laughable is Verenna's tendentious effort to beg for
the existence of an otherwise unknown, unattested Jewish acceptance of a
crucified, humiliated Messiah, which amounts to Verenna asking "how do
we know there weren't some that did accept such a thing" ten different
ways; appealing vaguely to diversity in views about the Messiah in
pre-Christian Judaism (while still failing to give any reason to expand
that diversity into the "crucified and humiliated" range), and picking
out texts like Ps. 22 that only Christians after Jesus related to a
crucified and humiliated Messiah.

If this sounds familiar to veteran readers, it should. Verenna
here is merely repeating the same arguments used by Richard Carrier in
response to my first point in The Impossible Faith. He even has
the temerity to use the figure on Inanna as an alleged crucified and
resurrected deity, which, as we have shown in reply to Carrier is also
false. In essence Verenna here simply repeats Carrier's errors while
either ignoring, or being unaware of, my responses.

Even more outlandishly, Verenna interprets Paul's profession to
have been "crucified with Christ" as an indication that the crucifixion
happened in the realm of myth. This is yet another example of what I
said to begin: It typifies a certain naivete found in fringe
scholarship, one in which absurd ideas are concocted to explain textual
phenomena because far more prosaic and contextualized interpretations
are either ignored, or more likely, are off the fringe writers' academic
radar screen. What is below Verenna's radar here is the social fact of
the collectivist mindset, wherein one's identity is rooted corporately
in an ingroup leader. This is what Paul means when he says he has been
crucified with Christ: Because he shares a collective, virtual identity
with Christ, he, too, has been crucified. Thus this statement does not,
as Verenna supposes, render the crucifixion non-historical.

Further on, Verenna simply chooses to ignore vast argument to the
contrary in rendering the "rulers of this age" in 1 Cor. 2 as heavenly
beings, and proceeds to argue as though it is proven that they are.

It gets even more outlandish, as Verenna reads Paul's report of
Jesus as of the seed of David, offering a false dilemma of only two
possible readings: 1) Jesus' mother was impregnated by a "celestial
seed" of David or 2) it is an allegory. What about it meaning Jesus was a
descendant of David? Verenna dismisses it because Paul doesn't include
more to satisfy Verenna, e.g., also naming Mary, or using the word
"descendant" -- although in fact neither of these is necessary, nor
shown to be by other appeals to Davidic remote lineage (e.g., Matt.
9:27).
Verenna similarly mistreats 1 Cor. 11:23 and the reference to
James as "brother of the Lord"; we need no treat those in detail
ourselves, as Verenna's analysis is not even to the depth of Earl
Doherty's on those passages, and so does not overcome our own replies to
Doherty. As strained as it becomes, Verenna points out that Luke
nowhere explicitly names James as Jesus' brother. This is true, but how
much is needed to connect the dots here?

Chapter 9 by James Crossley is on the topic of the historicity
of John, and so will not detain us for now when our concern is the
Christ-myth; we may return to it later.

From here there is nothing of substance to address that concerns
us. Chapter 10 by Thompson, and Chapter 11 by Ingrid Hjelm, are case
studies using Thompson's mystical motif methodology, in which the two
authors use varying degrees of hypercreativity to dig out motifs and
themes in the NT that mirror the OT. Chapter 12 by Joshua Sabih is about
Jesus in the Quran (!). Chapter 13 by K. L. Noll does not deal with the
issue of Jesus existing, but does demonstrate a level of insanity even
worse than that of Robert Price, as Noll applies Dawkins' outlandish
idea of memes to Christianity and makes up ridiculous arguments out of
thin air and paranoia (e.g., "...Matthew's Jesus seems to attack Paul
directly in Mt. 5:19 and 7:21.").

Thus it is that INC contributes little to the issue of Jesus'
historicity. The $100 price is better spent on a night at Outback
Steakhouse for four.

Friday, November 20, 2015

For our next entry, I selected a book said to
have an extended collection of NDE accounts; namely, Jeffrey Long and
Paul Perry's Evidence of the Afterlife. Long heads his own
institute devoted to the topic of NDEs (the Near Death Experience
Researcher Foundation), and collects NDE experiences as part of his
efforts.

The good news, then, is that this time we had plenty of stories
to evaluate. The bad news is that in not one case did we have one with
elements we could evaluate for the purpose of this series. In other
words, there was no story in which someone saw Jesus with nail holes in
his hands, or wrists. There was evidence given of knowledge of present
situations (e.g., someone seeing themselves on an operating table), but
none given of knowledge of past events.

So, what are we left with? As was the case last time, we are left with a chance to make a few miscellaneous observations.

One NDE experience offered this commentary:
It was like going home at last, at last. A feeling of belonging, of meaning, of completeness.

We should note that a "feeling", here, is not as objective an
indicator as we might like. However, it is nevertheless of interest that
this is fully in accord with our thesis of hell as a life of exclusion
and meaninglessness.
Long also reports that NDErs "may dramatically describe their
strong attraction to the light [that they see during their experience]
and their emphatic desire to approach or merge with the light." This,
too, coheres with our model of heaven and hell, with the caveats we
expressed in the last installment, like no NDErs successfully approached
or "merged with" said light.

Some NDErs describe a "life review" which (ironically!)
sounds a great deal like a scene from the Chick tract we examined last
issue, This Was Your Life! They speak of seeing every important
event, including a first birthday or first kiss. Of particular interest
is this description:
...[you will] experience your emotions and others that you hurt,
and feel their pain and emotions. What this is for is so you can see
what kind of person you were and how you treated others from another
vantage point, and you will be harder on yourself than anyone to judge
you.
Again, with the prior caveats in mind, this bears a striking resemblance to a thesis I offered in the recent e-book on hell:
A second image comes from the Voyager incarnation of the Star Trek
series. One of the crew members, accused wrongly of murder, was
sentenced by a planet’s justice system in which the death penalty was
considered too cruel. Rather, mind-altering technology was used so that
the crew member would periodically relive the murder, from the point of
view of the victim. (The pain of being murdered was not clearly involved
in this; the main focus was apparently on the experience.)

The Biblical perception of justice makes punishment equitable to
the crime (reaping what you sow). A Hitler would be shamed more than
(say) a robber baron by the degree of his deeds; but also, they might be
compelled to relive the experiences of their victims. Thus, for
example, Hitler might be compelled to endure, from the point of view of
the victims, each and every one of the millions of deaths he caused, in
an endless, eternal loop. (That can be fair since the victim will
remember it eternally also!)

Long notes the story of Betty Eadie, but does not discuss it
much. It occurs to me that hers may be the sort of detailed account
(like Colton Burpo's) I have been looking for, and may be especially
interesting (and likely to suffer disproof) given Eadie's Mormonism.

Here is a description that deserves a contrast:
....I felt as though I had never been more alert. My mind was fast, even though I physically was unconscious.
Compare this with our commentary on the nature of the afterlife
in the OT (link below), in which the afterlife is a “sleepy” (but not
“sleep”) state.

Of course, the NDErs description is merely an impression, and a
subjective one at that. He says his mind was fast, but what kind of test
did he endure to indicate this? Later, Long quotes another NDE
researcher as saying that NDErs often describe their mental processes as
"remarkably clear and lucid." But in what way? Could these persons now
do advanced calculus with ease? Or could it simply be that they were
lacking in their state a good deal of the mental clutter associated with
daily conscious life? Alternatively, has something changed from the
period of the OT, such that the afterlife is no longer a "sleepy" state?
Without more data, it is impossible to say.

One story offered by Long reports an alleged extended talk
with "God," though how this NDEr determined that they were talking to
God is not stated. The message from "God" professes a quite simple works
salvation, and relates that how good or bad one was will in turn affect
how one "feels" in the afterlife.
Even apart from consideration of Christianity, this account seems
like an oversimplified version of popular conceptions of heaven. It is
enough reason to be suspicious of either its authenticity, or its
accuracy. Another NDEr professes to have received a message of
pantheism.

In contrast, one NDEr explicitly states that when they were
shown the bad things they had done in life, their response was to fall
down on their face "in shame." Though this is in accord with our thesis,
the account regrettably contains no more verifiable data than the one
we noted previously.

Such are the limited observations we gleaned from Long. In order to
arrive at some substance for our intended purpose in this series, we
will consider Betty Eadie's account in our next installment.
Link